Being in Internet Marketing can be grueling. Sometimes you will sit in front of the computer monitor for 8-12 hours a day and sparcely get up for a drink or a bathroom break. I strongly feel that in order to enjoy the freedom that you possess as someone who works at home, you need to get out of the office every now and then and enjoy some entertainment!
The problem is, you need to make sure whatever you are doing does not get too addicting, or else you will actually be hurting your business in the long run. As a recovering MMORPG addict, I know this just as well as anyone. There was a time when I would spend 8-12 hours a day playing World of Warcraft instead of working or doing anything productive.
Now don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy video games, I just make sure that they aren’t of the life-stealing variety. Some of the best games to take your mind off of things are the most mindless entertainment out there, but it is very relaxing to not worry about anything for an hour or two, or even 30 minutes. For example, Braid, Assault Heroes, or any of the other Xbox Live Arcade games are excellent. They are cheap, and they are easy to pick up and easy to put down. Another series that’s good is the Lego series, like Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and Lego Indiana Jones. These might seem childish on the surface, but they are actually quite fun, and you can play with a friend as well. More importantly, you won’t wake up at 3pm the next day and realize that you spent the entire night trying to kill a raid boss with your pick-up group.
If you are looking for a cheap alternative to buying games, which can be $30-$60 a pop, I highly recommend GameFly. It is an excellent service that works just like Netflix, but for games. You can even buy the games that you rent at a discounted price if you decide it’s a keeper.
Also, movies are a great way to kill some time. I cannot recommend Netflix enough as a service. It’s more than just the ease of renting from home, it’s the insane selection that they have and the matching system. If you devote a couple of hours to it when you first sign up, and go through and rate the movies that you have already seen with their 5-star rating system, it will get a pretty good idea of what you are into and will recommend some really great movies that you have probably never seen. I know it has for me.
This might sound a bit off-topic for a blog about Affiliate Marketing, but I want to make sure that you are in this for the long run, and the quickest way to burn yourself out on any business is to work work work and forget to have some fun along the way. Also, these services have affiliate programs as well that you can promote once you become a believer. Don’t worry, I didn’t drop any affiliate links in this post, it’s purely informational, as always. I’ll leave that to you guys.